Thursday, December 8, 2011

A Political Debate I'd Like To See

The December 27 potential debacle hosted by Donald Trump is now thankfully down to two people: Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. If one is too chose leaders on their judgement, prudence, or discretion, the fact that Gingrich and Santorum are still considering attending indicates that both men lack the judicious nature the Presidency demands. By calling those who decline to attend an event hosted by a blowhard with an ego worthy of a Homeric epic, albeit a comic one, Santorum shows himself to be totally unsuited to any executive office.

The best evidence of how capable candidates are of fruitfully interacting with intellectuals would be to see them doing just this. Concretely, I make the follow suggestion for the coming presidential election: Gather small but diverse panels of eminent, politically uncommitted experts on, say, unemployment, the history of the Middle East, and climate science, and have each candidate lead an hour-long televised discussion with each panel. The candidates would not be mere moderators but would be expected to ask questions, probe disagreements, express their own ideas or concerns, and periodically summarize the state of discussion. Such engagements would provide some of the best information possible for judging candidates, while also enormously improving the quality of our political discourse.

I suspect that both political parties will do everything in their power to prevent such an event from happening, but one can always hope

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